Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Howling New Web Series?

I have maintained over the past year or so, that the entertainment industry is slowly becoming stagnant- especially with it's growing reliance on remaking older films, rebooting franchises, adapting originally successful TV shows into not-so-successful movies (we're looking at you Duke Boys), and movies jumping onto the 3D band wagon. I am always pleased when I see, or hear about people and projects that hope to inject some innovation and originality into the industry- especially in the horror genre.

One of those recent innovations has been the growth of the web series. You'll find many of them on YouTube by non-professionals- "Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?" being one of them. Of course, you'll find others with a more professional approach as well. One of the most successful so far is the web series, "The Guild", which is a humorous look at online gaming... and those addicted to them.

Because of this, I was intrigued when I saw a small post on the forums of Horror-Movies.ca, about a group of people trying to gather money to finance a horror/comedy web series. The name of the production group is, Full Moon Films, and the name of the series is, "Unemployed Wolfman".

Jared is an actor who was highly sought after for roles as the wolfman in werewolf movies- mainly because he was an honest, live wolfman. Due to reckless spending, and an ever increasing ego, Jared finds himself broke, unemployed, and left with only four people in his life: his agent, The Mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein's Monster. It's now up to Jared to pick up the pieces and forge a new life for himself in a world that is more impressed with CGI than his hairy arms and face...

Full Moon Films was recently formed by John Rodriguez, and "the brothers Gomez", Fernando and Gilberto after having worked together on small projects over a period of three years while attending film school. Fernando and John started working together while attending the same school and classes... eventually bringing Gilberto in for projects while he attended another school. According to John, "You get three distinct views collaborating to bring something interesting to the table."

I asked John what sort of influences went into the creation of "Unemployed Wolfman," he said that the "fish out of water story," an soft spot for underdogs, and a Halloween costume he designed helped to create the germ of an idea for the series.

"... But I wanted mine to have something extra. So, why not add a new layer to the crazy world we live in where movie monsters really exist, but aren't exactly as they're portrayed on television and movies."

Personally, I like the idea and it's potential for humour, character, and even an examination of the entertainment industry, the actors in it and their changing role due to technology. This series has the possibility to bring something new to the otherwise stagnant pool we call "entertainment". John sent me a sample of the concept art for Jared, and the look of his face/head looks good. I'll be really interested in seeing what the finalized make-up looks like, as well as clips as this project develops.

Right now, the three are raising funds to help finance this project, and produce the first season of episode- there'll ten episodes of about ten minutes each for it. To assist them in this, they do have a website set up for promoting the fund raising on IndieGoGo- check it out and donate! They also have a page on Facebook, so you can visit them there as well. And like most people, John has a Twitter account, so add him and keep up to date on the latest news regarding "Unemployed Wolfman"